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Aaron Copeland

A Playful City, Dublin

Aaron is a co-founder and director of A Playful City, with over 20 years of experience working across education, public art and community-led placemaking. His practice is rooted in a deep belief in the power of collaboration, creativity and inclusive design to transform the public realm. Aaron has played a key role in shaping spaces that reflect the identity, needs, and aspirations of the communities who use them — from local neighbourhood interventions to large-scale urban strategies.

Aaron’s work has been recognised and awarded nationally as well as internationally for its innovative and impactful approach to public space and community engagement. He brings a unique ability to bridge sectors — working with local authorities, design teams and community stakeholders to develop creative, practical and participatory methodologies that unlock the potential of place.

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Daibhí Mac Domhnaill MILI

Director, Áit Urbanism + Landscape

An Urban Designer and Landscape Architect with over twenty five years of career experience. In 2009 Daibhí founded Áit Urbanism and Landscape. The Áit approach to design is driven by a strong understanding of ecological processes and a grounded appreciation of human nature. Áit seek to achieve projects that successfully deliver functional robustness, interactivity, human comfort, joy, visual delight and longevity.

Áit have won numerous Awards for Design and Planning; in areas such as Placemaking, Biodiversity, Active Travel, Public Realm Design, Greening Strategies, Housing and Planting Design.  The Weaver Park project by Áit was the inaugural winner of the CBRE Excellence in Place Making Award 2018. In 2024 Áit were awarded the ILI Presidents Awards for the Belgooly National School project.

From 2016 - 2022 Daibhí worked with Cairn Homes as Head of Landscape and Urban Design; providing input and insight into the housing delivery journey from fallow lands to completion and handover. During this time Cairn Homes delivered over 5,000 new homes in the Greater Dublin Area and were recognised with multiple awards for the quality of place making and planning.

Daibhí worked as an Urban Designer for Murray Ó Laoire Architects from 2002-2007. Daibhí occasionally guest tutors on the Urban Design programme at University College Dublin.

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Dima Zogheib

Director, ARUP

Dima is a Director of Urban Resilience Design. Trained as a landscape architect, she is a specialist in resilient, liveable and nature-positive cities working at the intersection of landscape, climate and cities. She has extensive international experience spanning over 30 cities globally, focused on future-proofing cities, integrated planning and design, and innovative public realm. She has led and delivered complex and large-scale projects from concept through to delivery, smaller-scale community initiatives and planning for resilience. Selected projects she has led and co-authored include the Oman Botanic Garden, the Green Infrastructure Masterplan for Thimphu (Bhutan), the environmental and economic feasibility of the Tirana Orbital Forest (Albania), the Agadir Green City Action Plan (Morocco), the University of Sarajevo Campus Masterplan (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and an award-winning design strategy for a Child-Friendly Belfast Dima also led award-winning research on Meanwhile Use for the Greater London Authority and developed resilience strategies for over 20 cities globally through 100 Resilient Cities and the World Bank—including Amman, Athens, Thessaloniki, Byblos, and Tashkent. She regularly speaks and writes about city design and planning through the lens of resilience, climate, people, and nature.

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Emma Oldroyd, CMLI

Senior Lecturer, Landscape Architecture, Leeds School of Arts

Emma Oldroyd is an experienced chartered Landscape Architect with a diverse portfolio in strategic frameworks, masterplanning, design and regeneration projects gathered over 20 years working mainly in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Previous Landscape Lead at Arup, Ireland, Emma is now a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and Associate Landscape Architect at DRaW Landscape Architects.
Emma's experience spans high level strategic and design work through to hands on work with communities. Emma is passionate about how high-quality, multi-functional and regenerative places are conceived, made and kept. On behalf of Arup Ireland, her work for TII on the Design and Delivery of Soft Landscape Treatments in Urban Transport Environments, her work on Galway’s Open Space Strategy and the Southern Region’s NbS and BGI Framework set standards, recognised the importance of process and participation, and enabled the monitoring of change. Emma has masterplanned many places where it’s been important to get the big moves right, as early on in the design process as possible. Emma has co-designed several small parks in London and now works closely with Parks & Green Space forums to help close gaps between aspirations, knowledge and delivery, which is all about incremental place-shaping rather than grand gestures. 

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Eoghan Daltun

Eoghan Daltun is a sculpture conservator, a High Nature Value farmer and, above all, a rewilder. Originally from Dublin, since 2009 he has lived with his two sons, Liam and Seánie, on their 73-acre farm near Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork. 

He is author of the best-selling and award-winning book, ‘An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding’ (Hachette, September 2022), and ‘The Magic of an Irish Rainforest: A Visual Journey’ (Hachette, September 2024).  

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IG: https://www.instagram.com/irishrainforest

Frank McDonald

Journalist, author and editor

Frank is an award-winning journalist, author and former Environment Editor of The Irish Times. His books include The Destruction of Dublin (1985), Saving the City (1989), The Construction of Dublin (2000), Chaos at theCrossroads (2005, with James Nix), The Builders (2008, with Kathy Sheridan), Truly Frank: A Dublin Memoir (2018) and A Little History of the Future of Dublin (2021). 

He was made an Honorary Member of the RIAI in 2010, an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA in 2011 and elected as a member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics in 2024.

John Little

The Grass Roof Company

John argues against long standing protocol within public space and horticulture.

He suggests structural complexity is overlooked in landscape design and is more important than plant choice for driving biodiversity. Since starting the Grass Roof Company in 1998 he has designed and built over 300 small green-roof buildings, combining deep biodiverse green-roofs with walls of breeding and hibernation space.

He argues that we must invest in gardeners rather than more infrastructure. After 18 years caring for the greenspace on Clapton Park estate, London he has written a sustainable grounds maintenance contract that does just that.
He questions our obsession with specifying topsoil in all new projects, especially on highways and new developments. Habitat trials at his home include a garden designed with spoil from the local road widening scheme, industrial and construction waste.

In 2008 he launched a range of small green roof shelters based on shipping containers and designed portable structures including bike and bin storage, visit greenroofshelters.co.uk

Links: John can be contacted on 

Lisa Smyth

Landscape Architect

Senior Executive Parks & Landscape Officer, Galway City Council

Lisa is an experienced landscape architect with nearly 20 years in both the public and private sector working on a range of landscape projects including public parks, commercial developments, care setting and housing schemes.

Her current role in the Recreation & Amenity Section of Galway City Council, is focused on strategic planning, policy development, project delivery, development control, as well as working with communities and voluntary organisations on the ground.

Lisa is project lead for the Galway Green Spaces Strategy which is a framework for the provision of amenity and green infrastructure projects in the city over the next 10 years. Other projects currently in development are the Galway City Tree Strategy, a memorial garden for pregnancy loss and the urban meadow management programme under the Healthy Green Spaces initiative.

Before qualifying as landscape architect from UCD, Lisa worked for 10 years as an art director in theatre, television and film. This experience honed her visual storytelling skills and complements her current role in contributing to community engagement and place making.

Lisa is an experienced landscape architect with nearly 20 years in both the public and private sector working on a range of landscape projects including public parks, commercial developments, care setting and housing schemes.

Her current role in the Recreation & Amenity Section of Galway City Council, is focused on strategic planning, policy development, project delivery, development control, as well as working with communities and voluntary organisations on the ground.

Lisa is project lead for the Galway Green Spaces Strategy which is a framework for the provision of amenity and green infrastructure projects in the city over the next 10 years. Other projects currently in development are the Galway City Tree Strategy, a memorial garden for pregnancy loss and the urban meadow management programme under the Healthy Green Spaces initiative.

Before qualifying as landscape architect from UCD, Lisa worked for 10 years as an art director in theatre, television and film. This experience honed her visual storytelling skills and complements her current role in contributing to community engagement and place making.

Philip Doran

Teaching Fellow, UCD School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy

Philip J Doran is a Teaching Fellow in UCD's Landscape Architecture undergraduate programme and co-director of the Masters of Global Change Landscape Design. He is also a PhD candidate and practicing landscape architect under Philip J Landscape Architecture.

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Pol MacDonald

Founding Director of OPEN

Pol MacDonald is a trained landscape architect and architect with over 30 years of professional experience. Through the course of his education, he studied at Edinburgh College of Art, with ILAUD in Urbino, Italy, Rhode Island School of Design and Purdue University in the USA.

He is a founding Director of OPEN, now part of SLR Consulting Ltd, where he leads the Place team. In this role, he brings together a multidisciplinary design approach to the natural and built environment. Pol believes passionately in the inherent polymathic strength of landscape architecture and the ability of the profession to genuinely lead on the challenges that face us today employing an integrated place (and ultimately landscape-led) approach to social, cultural and environmental challenges.

With a background that combines both architecture and landscape architecture, Pol’s project portfolio is wide-ranging. He has recently led major masterplanning, urban design, and regeneration initiatives across the UK and internationally—from large-scale conceptual urban frameworks and new towns to detailed design and implementation. As a design and project lead, he plays a key role in coordinating multidisciplinary teams within SLR’s Place group as well as with external consultants, ensuring cohesive and integrated project delivery.

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Robert Burns 

Chief Executive, Monaghan County Council

Robert is Chief Executive of Monaghan County Council, a role he took up in September 2023.  The Council employs over 500 staff and serves a population of over 65,000 people. Monaghan County Council has an annual revenue budget of €94 million and provides a range of services including those related to housing, planning, environment, transportation and community development. The Council also has a significant capital investment programme that will see €454 million invested in capital projects between 2025 and 2027. Robert has a keen interest in ensuring that local authorities provide high quality housing and foster sustainable communities, climate-proof communities and infrastructure, accelerate the regeneration of towns and villages and provide attractive, accessible and socially and economically active public spaces centred on the needs of people.

Prior to Joining Monaghan County Council, Robert was Director of Housing and Community Development with Fingal County Council. There he was responsible for the management of a stock of over 6,000 social homes and the delivery of 4,500 new social and affordable homes and led on the development of number of major mixed tenure housing schemes using innovative forms of funding and delivery.

Before joining Fingal in January 2022, Robert was a Director with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, with responsibility for the management and delivery of infrastructure, public realm, transportation and climate action-related projects. 

Robert graduated as a Civil Engineer from Queens University Belfast in 1995.  

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Ross O’Ceallaigh

Creator and Host, Green Urbanist Podcast

Ross O’Ceallaigh is an urbanist, sustainability educator and changemaker. He runs the Urban Wilding Hub, a nonprofit that promotes wilder nature in towns and cities as a proactive response to the climate and biodiversity crises. As an urban design and planning consultant, he has worked with local governments in England, Ireland and Nigeria on urban strategy and community engagement. A passionate advocate for climate action, Ross regularly speaks at events and hosts the Green Urbanist podcast.

Links

Shauna Callaghan

Development Manager, The Land Development Agency

 As Development Manager, Shauna brings extensive expertise in urban planning and development, with experience spanning all stages of the development lifecycle. She specialises in stakeholder engagement and navigating complex planning processes, while driving design standardisation to meet critical affordability targets for delivering high-quality, affordable housing.

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Stephen O’Malley

CIVIC

Stephen is a Founding Director & Chief Executive of Civic, and a member of Taoiseach’s Dublin City Taskforce. Recognising that the quality of our built environment is intrinsically linked to the wellbeing of our natural surroundings, Stephen champions striving for excellence and harmonising with nature to develop climatically resilient spaces that enhance lives and provide enriching experiences for our communities. As a Dubliner, he is passionate about urban infrastructure and sets about his work aiming to engineer less, reaching first for nature-based solutions and applying these principles with a high degree of emotional intelligence, with projects including College Green Dame Street Public Realm and contributing to Ireland’s National Transport Authority SuDS Guidance. This creative and inclusive system thinking approach sets Civic apart and has seen Stephen recognised as an industry expert in his field. He is also an ICE Policy Fellow, an Architecture & Design Scotland Panellist, Fellow at the Landscape Institute in the UK, Institute Member of the Academy of Urbanism, a Design Council Associate and NLA Sounding Board member.

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Shane Quinn 

Academy of Urbanism

Shane is a non-Exec Board Director of the Academy of Urbanism (AoU) and voluntary Curator of the AoU’s biennial Congress, a 3-day experiential learning event focused on good urbanism practice, the most recent of which was in Utrecht in June 2025. He has worked at Belfast Buildings Trust, a small heritage regeneration charity, since 2006 and has extensive experience in policy, governance, and stakeholder engagement across heritage, culture, and urban regeneration. He believes that good places are built on good stories, with his work focused on putting people at the heart of place: making sure what matters to people helps shape where matters to them.  

Shane has significant governance and public service experience, serving also as a Trustee of National Museums Northern Ireland, The MAC (Metropolitan Arts Centre) Belfast, and of the RUCGC Foundation. He Chairs the NI Historic Environment Forum’s Advocacy work, served on the Northern Ireland Culture, Arts & Heritage Strategy Task Force, and helped secure Belfast’s UNESCO City of Music status. A Fellow of the RSA, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Belfast in 2024.

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Suzanne O'Connell

Landscape Architect, Dublin City Council 

Suzanne has worked as part of the DCC Parks, Biodiversity and Landscape Services team for the past 6 years with a role in the design, procurement and delivery of new park and green infrastructure projects across the city. She is currently leading on the regeneration of Cherry Orchard Park, the redevelopment of St. James’s Linear Park, and the implementation of the Stoneybatter Greening Strategy (see links).

Prior to joining DCC, she co-founded The Decorators, an interdisciplinary, socially engaged practice. During her 10 years there, she delivered a wide range of public realm projects through community participation, place activation and cultural programming (see links).

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Terri Morrissey

Terri is currently Vice Chair, Trustee and Chair of the Climate Committee An Taisce and has also recently been elected Chair of An Taisce & Board of trustees. An Taisce’s mission is to steward and protect Ireland’s heritage, natural and built, for future generations to enjoy. In that mission it works in collaboration with other organisations who share this common  vision and values.

Throughout her career Terri has been involved in many multi-disciplinary interventions as a psychologist, starting with her first involvement with architects, planners and sociologists on research into the built environment, including a stint with the School of Architecture in UCD. Since then she has held a variety of consulting roles including the setting up of her own business This Is…in organisation sustainability, development and change (2004-present).

Her more recent pro bono roles include Chair Innovation, High Level Advisory Board for Go Green Routes (2020-2024); Advisory Board member for Go Green Next (2024-2028) (Maynooth University) and Advisory Board member for Green Talent (2025-2029) Malta - all Horizon Europe Programmes on the green and blue environment and its impact on health and wellbeing. She also Chairs the British Psychological Society’s Climate Environment Action Coordination Group (2023-present).

She is a member of the British Psychological Society, the American Psychological Association and the Global Psychology Alliance (Climate Action Committee). She was awarded a Presidential Citation in June 2022 by the President of the American Psychological Association for her work on global psychology and climate action. Author of numerous papers; speaker at conferences and co-author of the book  “Uncertainty Rules ?” (2020).

Links:

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